Quote of the Week: Are We Ever Done Working?

on August 12, 2010

I was out at dinner tonight and overheard another table. Maybe you’ve heard something similar before. It goes something like this, “He made how much? from that? If only I’d thought of that, I could cash out. Call it a day and be done.” The truth is though, we are never done. I mean really, what is done?

For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra year’s worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasn’t studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.

Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of auto correlation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve ever learned.

Working with a purpose–no matter what that purpose is–whether it be to put dinner on the table, to provide opportunity for your family to doing what you love, matters. And we are never done. Call it an end-of-the-week rant, but what do you think–are we ever done working?

Very good points and having a purpose in life every day carries over nicely to retirement. When you no longer have someone telling you what to do and when there is no longer a formal means of receiving recognition, you have to figure out for yourself what you will do. And it is important to plan before you retire because now is the time that you can do something to address possible problem areas down the road. Doing what you love to do, something you have not been able to because of work requirements – your passion – can give you a purpose in retired life. Whether it is writing a book or learning a language or riding a bike across the state, some purpose that gets you out of bed each day and ready to just do it.

Alexandra Bornkessel

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